On the one hand, Jay Fox, Manitoba Cattle Producers president, is grateful for Manitoba Agriculture staff and the work they’ve done to help cattle farmers around Lake Manitoba deal with near record lake levels and flooded forage land. But on the other hand, he is frustrated with the Manitoba government because they could have taken […] Read more
Robert Arnason
Stories by Robert Arnason
Soybeans still a good bet in Manitoba despite Mother Nature
Bad weather is complicating plans to grow a record number of soybeans in Manitoba this year. The initial expectation had been for farmers to plant as many as 700,000 acres, which would have smashed the 2010 record of 528,000 acres, but that was before Manitoba winter extended well into April. Most Red River Valley soybean […] Read more
Wet weather puts damper on North Dakota wheat acres
North Dakota farmers will seed 500,000 fewer acres of spring wheat this year than expected, says Jim Peterson, marketing director for the North Dakota Wheat Commission. Wheat acreage will likely drop even further if producers don’t receive dry weather in the last week of May, he added. The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicted in its […] Read more
Canola ‘train wreck’ feared
Canadian canola acreage has increased to 16.1 million tonnes in 2010 from 11.5 million in 2003, but this gain may come with a huge risk. Allan Preston, a former assistant deputy minister with Manitoba Agriculture, worries that western Canadian farmers are pushing canola rotations to the limit, which will inevitably lead to a disease “train […] Read more
Man. ponders livestock insurance program
Manitoba cattle producers may soon have a price insurance program, but it won’t be a carbon copy of the Alberta model, says provincial agriculture minister Stan Struthers. He said the Manitoba government consulted with the Alberta Financial Services Corp. about its price insurance program, but the province’s cow-calf operators require a made-in- Manitoba program. “We’ve […] Read more
Man. closes hole in dike
After a week of intentionally spilling water onto farmland southeast of Portage la Prairie, the Manitoba government decided today to close a dike on the Assiniboine River. The province began work to close the controlled breach of the dike at Hoop and Holler Bend at noon Friday. Water levels in the Assiniboine River at Portage […] Read more
Soybeans still good bet in Manitoba
Bad weather is complicating plans to grow a record number of soybeans in Manitoba this year. The initial expectation had been for farmers to plant as many as 700,000 acres, which would have smashed the 2010 record of 528,000 acres, but that was before Manitoba winter extended well into April. As a result, most soybean […] Read more
Cattle shipped out, pastures submerged
EDDYSTONE, Man. – Bill Finney usually feeds his cattle in a more conventional manner, but this spring he has been spreading hay on a road half a mile south of his farmyard. Finney, who runs 400 cows near the Lake Manitoba Narrows with his brothers, Lyle and Norman, was forced to feed cattle on the […] Read more
Farmers angry yet resigned over flood
Farmers southeast of Portage la Prairie, Man., are relieved, frustrated and angry following the provincial government’s decision May 14 to intentionally flood cropland, says Chuck Fossay, who farms near Starbuck, Man. The province cut into the Assiniboine River dike at Hoop and Holler Bend, 15 kilometres from Portage, releasing 400 cubic feet per second of […] Read more
Fusarium a concern across Prairies
Wet growing conditions last year allowed fusarium head blight to hammer wheat crops across a 1,000 kilometre stretch of the Prairies from Anola, Man., to Biggar, Sask. Canadian Wheat Board agronomist Mike Grenier said that means growers in parts of Saskatchewan will need to take steps to combat the disease this year. “Historically, it’s been […] Read more
